1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic tape library device. More specifically, the present invention relates to a magnetic tape library device with which a plurality of cartridge housing bodies having a plurality of magnetic tape cartridges housed therein and are placed in series within a horizontal plane can be easily pulled out to the outside the device from a housing state, and with which the cartridge housing body can be prevented from falling out of the device unexpectedly.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been known a magnetic tape library device which includes, in a chassis, a plurality of cartridge housing bodies for housing a plurality of magnetic tape cartridges. With this type, there has been known a magnetic tape library device in which a cartridge housing body is placed movably within a horizontal plane along the inserting/extracting direction. As an example of such a magnetic tape library device, there is a type in which the cartridge housing body is divided in two pieces in the back and the front in the inserting/extracting direction (see Japanese Patent Application JP2008-275704 (Patent Document 1), for example).
A cartridge library device disclosed in Patent Document 1 is a magnetic tape library device with which a cartridge on the back side can be easily extracted without using a robot or the like. In the magnetic tape library device 100, a magazine 120 is divided to a front magazine (not shown in FIG. 12 because of being extracted already) disposed on the front side of an inserting/extracting direction X and a rear magazine 122 disposed on the back side of the inserting/extracting direction X while being placed adjacent to the front magazine. In order to pull out the rear magazine 122 disposed on the back side, a magazine slider 125 provided on one of side faces of a device main body 11 is pulled out in an extracting direction X2 along the inserting/extracting direction X.
Note that Patent Document 1 disclosing the magnetic tape library device 100 is an application filed by the Applicant of the present invention.
By the way, the magnetic tape library device disclosed in Patent Document 1 is an excellent invention with which: among a plurality of cartridges housed in series along the inserting/extracting direction, a cartridge on the back side can be easily extracted without using a robot or the like.
However, Applicant of the present invention has analyzed the device from various viewpoints to make the above described magnetic tape library device better, and extracted problems possible to occur. As a result, Applicant has found that the following problem could occur.
That is, the front magazine disposed on the front side of the device main body 111 is extracted by an operator with his/her hand as needed; however, in a case of extracting the rear magazine 122 disposed on the back side of the device main body 111, the magazine slider 125 is firstly drawn to pull the rear magazine 122 to the front side, and then the rear magazine 122 is extracted by being pulled with hand in the same operation as in the case of the front magazine. As a result, the extraction works for the front magazine and the rear magazine 122 becomes different operations. Therefore, it takes extra effort, and the operability is poor.
Also, both the front magazine and the rear magazine 122 do not have a locking mechanism for locking the magazine at a prescribed position when the magazine is extracted. Therefore, it is necessary to devise a configuration with which the magazine is hold at a prescribed position in the device certainly for preventing the magazine from falling out of the device unexpectedly and enhancing the safety. Required further is to provide the magazine slider 125 for pulling out the rear magazine 122 on one side face of the device main body 111. So, there also arises such a problem that the configuration of the magnetic tape library device becomes complicated.